“It’s really been a lack of competition,” says Eric Anderson, who heads a company called Space Adventures.

He adds that during the space race with the Soviet Union, the technology involved in spaceflight was practically a state secret.

“You know, you hear stories about how we had the drawings for the moon rockets put away,” Anderson says. “This is completely the reverse of the approach that we should have taken.”

In the last decade, things have opened up: Engineers and entrepreneurs have created a new wave of companies that plan to launch satellites and science experiments â€” as well as tourists â€” into space. There’s even a company designing an inflatable space hotel.